Vivo replaces Pepsi as IPL title sponsor, deal pegged at Rs 200 crore

A little more than a week back, PepsiCo was looking for an exit from the Indian Premier League (IPL). Despite BCCI’s attempts to keep the cola giant on board for the remainder of the contract, it has not worked. The BCCI Working Committee on Sunday announced the exit of PepsiCo as the title sponsor. The committee announced to take its place is Chinese mobile phone brand Vivo for the next two years till 2017.

Pepsi had signed a five-year deal for Rs. 396 crore for the rights of IPL. An earlier article on exchange4media said that this would amount to around Rs. 80 crore per year and two years amounting to almost Rs. 160 crore. Though BCCI has not disclosed the deal amount with Vivo, media reports suggest that the new deal is said to be worth Rs. 100 crore per year. As the deal is for two years till 2017, it will be Rs. 200 crore. This is a 25 per cent increase in the price that Pepsi had paid per year for its association with the tournament. The BCCI committee, however, announced that Vivo Mobiles has to give a bank guarantee in the next 10 days.

Pepsi, in a notice, reportedly cited the issue of IPL bringing disrepute to the game and as a result wanted out from the contract. While Pepsi became the title sponsor of the league in 2013 after DLF’s five-year deal ended, it was in the same year that the IPL was hit by allegations of match-fixing. The scandal resulted in the then BCCI President N. Srinivasan being fired and an expulsion of two years for the Rajasthan Royal (RR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) teams.

Though the BCCI committee has suspended the two teams CSK and RR, it announced there will be two new teams in the next season. It said that there will be bids conducted for the two new teams soon. CSK and RR, however, will be allowed to return after the two years of suspension.

Apart from Vivo being the new title sponsors for the IPL, BCCI also announced the extension of Nike’s contract as the apparel sponsor for the Indian cricket team. The deal is said to have increased to Rs. 1 crore per match. It previously was Rs. 80-85 lakh per match in the previous deal.

While sponsorship prices were expected to take a hit of almost 30%, it seems to have not impacted the BCCI in any way. The sponsorship deals just seem to be rising. However, the same cannot be said for the team brand sponsorship that is expected to see a hit due to the scandals and the issues involved with the tournament and teams. Though BCCI has not been affected with another brand replacing the title sponsorship for IPL, Pepsi’s exit from the IPL serves as a lesson for the BCCI extend caution in the future.